Nassau County Republican legislators earlier this year proposed a law to freeze property reassessments for five years in an effort to re-evaluate the current program and determine if perhaps reassessment should occur every five years rather than annually as it currently does. Democratic Majority legislators, however, have refused to hold a hearing and, as a result, members of the legislature's GOP kicked off a petition drive June 12 in an effort to force the issue to be heard.

Under the proposed new law, Republicans state the county would continue to conduct annual valuations of private residences and homeowners would benefit from a lower assessment if home values decreased. In addition, the county would be prohibited from increasing the assessment on homes that the county assessor contends have risen in value during the five-year freeze period. As a result, during this period, a homeowner's assessed valuation could decrease but never increase, according to Republican legislators.

According to Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (Massapequa - 12th L.D.), a freeze in reassessment would result in lower property taxes being paid by homeowners. "The Republican plan will give Nassau's hard-pressed taxpayers some relief by ensuring that the Nassau County assessor cannot increase the assessed value of any residence in the county for the next five years," Schmitt said.

"Enough is enough. Middle class residents of Nassau County are being taxed out of their homes and the county's annual reassessment scheme is one of the main reasons why. Even in years when local government holds the line on tax rates or a local school district passes a budget with a small tax rate increase, many homeowners have experienced double-digit increases in the property taxes that they have to pay, thanks to the massive increase in their property assessment handed down by the Nassau County assessor," he said.

Presiding Officer Judith Jacobs (Woodbury - 16th L.D.) told Anton Community Newspapers that the Republican proposal, in her opinion, is a "very poorly thought out plan that does nothing to help the residents of Nassau County in terms of taxes."

"I agree that taxes are too high, but freezing assessments will do more harm than good to Nassau County and once again push the assessment system into disarray," Jacobs said, adding that reassessing every five years would "bring the county back to the Gulotta days when the system was so broken because it wasn't addressed for 60 years."

"It will create an inequitable assessment system just like the one we were faced with before we began to address assessment properly," she said. "It will be the beginning of the end for Nassau County. The gold standard is annual reassessment in order to keep the system accurate. There is no question about that."

According to Nassau County Board of Assessors Chairman Harvey Levinson, "Even if reassessment did not take place, the property tax burdens imposed on homeowners by the school districts and the other nearly 400 taxing jurisdictions throughout Nassau County would have increased each year. When one steps back from the politics being played with the issue to deflect taxpayer outrage for soaring budgets and high property taxes, you cannot hide the facts."

The assessor states that in proposing the legislation, "Republican legislators fail to recognize that taxes are driven by municipal and school district spending; cut spending and you reduce taxes. "Assessment only tells a taxing jurisdiction how much value there is to formulate a tax rate to raise the money it needs to fund their budgets," he said. "If the assessment roll was frozen for a period of five years, Nassau County would wind up having an assessment roll that is inaccurate, inequitable and in violation of the terms of the settlement agreed to in New York State Supreme Court."

The Democrats, who hold a 10-member majority, have complete control over what proposed laws are scheduled for a public hearing and, according to Schmitt, have ignored the legislation and refused to place it on the legislative calendar for a hearing. As a result of the Majority's refusal to hear the proposal at this time, Republican legislators have turned to never-before utilized sections of the Nassau County government law and the county charter that require the legislature to schedule and hold a public hearing based on the submission of a petition signed by more than 2,000 qualified county voters.

"We will go over the taxing Democrats' heads and go directly to the people who will tell Presiding Officer Jacobs to do her job and put this sorely needed tax relief measure on the legislative calendar for a public hearing," said Schmitt.

According to Jacobs, the charter states the issue must be put up for a vote prior to the end of the year it was submitted only if the proper, legal number of signatures are submitted. "If presented with the legal number of signatures I will follow the charter and this issue will be brought before the legislature by the end of the year."

The petition drive kicked off last month and Republican legislators and candidates are circulating the petition throughout all the county's 19 legislative districts. According to Nassau Republican spokesperson Suzanne Wiener, a total of 50 signatures are required from each of the county's 20 legislative districts for a total of 2,000 overall. Based on the response so far, Wiener said the party should have no problem obtaining the required number of signatures. "We have seen an outstanding response from both Republican and Democratic voters, that we will be way above and beyond the 2,000 signatures required," she said.

Also supporting of the five-year reassessment freeze petition are several Republicans seeking election to the legislature this November, including current Oyster Bay Town Councilman Elizabeth Faughnan, who is running in the 18th L.D., Joseph Belesi (14th L.D.) and Howard Kopel (7th L.D.).

While she in no way disputes the fact that taxes are too high or that the current assessment system may need improvement, Jacobs does believe it can all be done without freezing. "Freezing is extremely irresponsible," the presiding officer said, adding that she plans to do everything within her power as presiding officer to ensure that politics are not involved in this issue.

"I will not allow this issue to become a political football," said Jacobs. "It is too important an issue for the residents of Nassau County to be lost in political rhetoric. I am surprised and saddened with the Republicans who initially joined with us in approving the reassessment system."

Reassessment in Nassau County was implemented five years ago after the Nassau Board of Assessors unanimously adopted a resolution under the county charter to begin a revaluation of residential and commercial properties in accordance with Section 305 of New York State's Real Property Tax Law. The reassessment program was the result of a 2000 New York State Supreme Court lawsuit. Prior to 2003, Nassau had been assessing residential properties at 1938 construction costs.

As a result of reassessment, the county created a special, assessing unit of four tax classes: Class 1 (1-, 2- and 3-family homes and low-rise condos), Class 2 (apartments, co-ops and high-rise condos), Class 3 (public utility properties) and Class 4 (all other commercial property). The system transitions in any increase in assessment over a five-year period as well as caps increases in assessed valuation on Class 1 properties to no more than 6 percent in any year for a total of no more than 20 percent over five years.

After the fifth year, the assessment caps start over again and, according to Levinson, the 6 percent cap limiting assessment increases is the current state law and will apply to the 2007-2008 assessment roll - the first roll outside of the jurisdiction of the 2000 Supreme Court settlement and the first under the county assessor's total control.